skkn some ways to improve the weak students’ listening skill grade 10th

- Instruct students how to make the answers while listening short answers or main ideas SOLVE THE PROBLEM - In the Tieng Anh 10 textbook in VietNam, activities in the three stages are r

TITLE :

The problem of teaching listening

A new series of English textbooks for students have been used in schools in VietNam for some years and there has been a lot of feedback from teachers who have used them One of the problems they face is that they are not satisfied with their teaching of listening Although they have been trying to find ways to make their listening activities more effective, the results they obtain are not as good as what they want

Some conclusions have been made to explain the situation Many teachers stated that the new textbooks which contain a large amount of knowledge, hinder the students’ learning Others stated that they have many weak students who lack vocabulary, grammatical knowledge and have poor pronunciation, reduce classroom learning potential learning environment Sometimes the problem originates from the teachers themselves Many teachers think that if they teach in a class with many weak students, they can’t spend a lot of time teaching listening They do not use all of activities they had designed when writing lesson plans because if they do, the weak students can’t keep up

What we should do to help develop listening skills in weak English language students.

A Issues relating to the language learners

After finding out that our teachers used the listening techniques they were trained

in the workshop, but not successfully in every language class, we looked into other issues relating to language learning which have been discovered so far

1 Psychology

SOME WAYS TO IMPROVE THE WEAK STUDENTS’ LISTENING SKILL- GRADE 10TH

SOME WAYS TO IMPROVE THE WEAK STUDENTS’ LISTENING SKILL- GRADE 10TH

We should take into account the psychology of learning habits and skills Certain psychological factors should be considered such as memory We should consider their mental condition, their ability

2 Motivation and learning

- Students learn well if they are well-motivated We can motivate even unmotivated students

3 Learning styles

- Visual learners learn through seeing

- Auditory learners learn through listening

- Tactile/Kinaesthetic learners learn through moving, doing and touching

4 Types of Multiple Intelligence

- Visual/Spatial Intelligence: ability to perceive the visual

- Verbal/Linguistic Intelligence: ability to use words and language

- Logical/Mathematical Intelligence: ability to use reason, logic and numbers

- Bodily/Kinaesthetic Intelligence: ability to control body movements and handle objects skilfully

- Musical/Rhythmic Intelligence: ability to produce and appreciate music

- Interpersonal Intelligence: ability to relate and understand others

- Intrapersonal Intelligence: ability to self-reflect and be aware of one’s inner state

of being

It is believed that each person has at least 3 or 4 types of intelligence So we cannot think that weak learners are unintelligent people.

5 Weak students

Weak students are the students who usually lack basic knowledge or skills, have difficulty in comprehension Some teachers say that in the classroom the weak students often lack concentration They are easily confused so in the classroom the teacher should give clear, step by step, instructions The teacher should anticipate that weak students may need extra help, extra explanations

B What we do to help weak students in Listening.

1 At the pre-listening stage: have more time at the pre-listening stage by

shortening the post-listening stage

At this stage, we carefully prepare the lesson reading the tapescripts and using The Teaching Listening Checklist The following activities can be used based on the content of each lesson:

- Revise and teach vocabulary

- Revise and teach grammatical structure

- Create a gap-filling task or other tasks based on the tapescript

- Train listening skills

- Train microskills for listening

- Give some listening tips

2 At the while-listening stage:

- Remember to tell the aim of listening before you let the students listen to the tape

- Write a very easy question so that the students can answer after the first listening (to encourage them to listen, to make them have a feeling of success)

- Write more additional questions to the listening tasks to make them easy for the students

- Ask the students to guess before they listen to the tape (Do not say what they guess is wrong or right, ask why they guess so if necessary)

- Be flexible when getting the students to listen to the tape Read the listening text

if you find it helpful to your students

- Instruct students how to make the answers while listening ( short answers or main ideas)

SOLVE THE PROBLEM

- In the Tieng Anh 10 textbook in VietNam, activities in the three stages are ready for the teachers to use The problem is that many students are still weak at learning English, particularly, listening Sometimes they are fed up with listening activities

because they are forced to listen to stories or conversations from the cassette players, and grasp nothing Sometimes they feel happy in listening activities, because they just pretend to do some activities the teacher asks them to do, pretend

to listen to the tape carefully, finish one or two tasks in the textbook and wait for the answers to the tasks the teacher tell them or someone of their classmates who is lucky to get the teacher’s book

- So as to teach weak students effectively, I have designed some units of the 10th

form textbook such as : Unit 1, unit 3, unit 6, unit 10 and unit 12

A Unit 1: A DAY IN THE LIFE OF ….

I Warm-up

- Students look at the pictures and answer the question

What are their jobs?

Picture 1 Picture 2

Picture 3 Picture 4

Expected answers:

 Picture 1: He is a taxi driver

 Picture 2: He is a cyclo driver

 Picture 3: He is a bus driver

 Picture 4: He is a pilot

II Pre- listening

1 Revise vocabulary: get up, old man, a lady, fellows, school pupils, take a short rest Use the pictures in the textbook to help the students to find out the Vietnamese equivalence

2 Help the students to find out the Vietnamese equivalence of other English words given in the task: district, routine, office, pedal, purchase, drop, ride, park, food stall, passenger

Note: After the two above activities, students can obtain more words needed for listening to do the task.

3 Ask the students to pay attention to some clues:

+ The time: five thirty, six, after, twelve

+ The words: first passenger, next passenger, third passengers

3.a Ask the students to use the given words to complete the spaces in the

following sentences (The sentences are extracted from the listening text):

work get up park food stall ride off

a I …… at five thirty in the morning

b At about ten thirty I …… toward Nguyen Thi Minh Khai School

c I start … at six

d At twelve I have lunch at a …… near Ben Thanh Market

e After lunch, I …… my cyclo under a tree

3.b Tell the students that the above sentence belongs to a paragraph about the daily routine of a cyclo driver, but they are not in their correct order Ask the

students to put them (You can use Vietnamese for the instruction if you find it

helpful and you want to save the time in case your students do not understand the instruction in English).

4 Ask the students to put the following sentences in their correct order (The

sentences are extracted from the listening text):

a My next passenger is a lady who does shopping there every two days

b My third passengers are two school pupils, a girl and a boy.

c My first passenger is usually an old man

Note: The activities 3.b and 4 serve to help the students to be familiar with the ordering task.

5 Ask one student to mime what a cyclo driver does everyday

Note: This activity will change the atmosphere in the classroom because it is funny and it helps the tactile learners to show themselves Activities 1, 2 is for visual learners or students having verbal intelligence Activities 3.b and 4 are for students having logical intelligence

III While listening

- Ask the students to listen to the tape for the first time and answer the following questions:

The listening text is about ……

A a cyclo driver B a bus driver C a taxi driver

- For the second or third, or fourth listening the teacher should help the students to finish the listening task in the textbook

IV After listening

Ask students to retell the story to the class from the outline

a cyclo driver start work at

Mr Lam passengers an old man

a lady

two school pupils

have lunch a food stall

twelve

after lunch a short rest under a tree

B Unit 3: PEOPLE’S BACKGROUND

I Warm - up:

Look at the pictures and present their ideas

Picture 1 Picture 2

Picture 3 Picture 4

T models: Picture 1 : He is swimming

Student : Picture 2 : They are playing basketball

Student: Picture 3 : She is reading

Student: Picture 4: They are watching TV

II Before listening

- Revise vocabulary: different, free time = spare time, join = attend = take part in = participate in

- Helps the students to find out the Vietnamese equivalence of other English words given in the task:

 The Olympic champion

 A general education

 Teacher’s diploma

- Help the students to recognize the differences between

 18 , 80( main stress “eighteen and eighty”)

 15, 50 (fifteen and fifty)

Note: After the above activities, students can obtain more words needed for listening to do the task.

II While listening

I have made a little alter to have students prepare the lesson plans carefully

in class, exploit the transcript and develop further their language skills

A Listening and decide whether statements are True( T) or False( F)

1 In 1995 Sally took part in the star Sports Club

2 There are five peope in her family

3 She has lots of spare time.

4 She likes both sports and reading

5 She wants to become a writer.

B Listen to the conversation again, and fill in the blank.

1 Sally got a education at _school

2 She lives in Manchester with her _

3 She likes _ - basketball and swimming

4 She likes to read love storties- books

5 She wants to get her _

III After listening:

Ask students to work in pairs and make a conversation about Sally’s

background

1 Sally – the Olympic champion – when did she join the star sports club?

2 where does she live?

3 Who does she live with?

4 What does she like when she has free time?

5 What kind of books does Sally like?

6 What does she want to become in the future?

C UNIT 6: AN EXCURSION

I Warm – up:

Choose a pupil to use gestures to express while other students guess and present their ideas.

 Taking photographs , pictures

 Singing

 sleeping

 Laughing

 Dancing

 Fishing

II Pre- listening:

- Teach some important vocabulary in the listening period: pack up, pay a visit to

- ask the students to guess the meanings of the words or phrases

1 Match the words or phrases in A with their meanings in B:

A B

1 Glorious (a)

2 Assemble (v)

3 Destination (n)

4 Left – overs (n)

5 Delicious (a)

6 Spacious (a)

7 Sleep soundly

a a place to which a person is going to

b the rest

c be in deep sleep

d large, have a lot of space

e beautiful, shining

f gather

g tasty

Answers: 1 e,2 f, 3 a, 4 b, 5 g, 6 d,7 c

III While listening:

I have designed the order of the tasks to suit the weak students

Task 1:

Task 2: Answer the questions

- T has students give short answers while listening

Ex 1: what was the weather like that day?

 very nice ( instead of “ The weather was very nice)

Ex 2: How was the garden?

 beautiful (instead of “ The garden was beautiful”)

1 Was the Botanic Garden far from the school?

2 Why could some of the students sleep soundly?

3 What did the students do in the garden?

Expected answers:

2 Because it was so peaceful and quiet

3 took pictures, played games, talked, sang, danced

Task3: listen again and fill in the blanks with the exact words you hear

IV After - listening

- Ask students to work in groups of three to four and map out the plan for

the picnic this weekend

- To help weak students to complete the exercises easily, t should supply

the materials:

 Destination:

 Means of transport:

 How many

 How long

 Who with:

 What activities:

 Bring any food?

D UNIT 9: UNDERSEA WORLD

I Warm- up

T has students present their own ideas

Food

Leather

Oil Other products

II Pre – listening:

- Help the students to recognize the differences between

 13 , 30 ( main stress “thirteen and thirty”)

 15, 50 (fifteen and fifty)

Help the students to find out the Vietnamese equivalence of other English words given in the task:

 Long, in length, weigh, in weight, krill, mammal, blue whale, whaling, migrate, the International whaling commision

 Note: After the above activities, students can obtain more words needed for listening to do the task.

III While - listening

- Because my students are not good at listening, I’ve designed the task 1 into 3 questions (instead of 5 questions)

- Ask students to guess before they listen to the tape

1 Listen to some information about whales and decide whether the following statements are true (T) or false (F).

1 The whale is the third largest animal that has ever lived on Earth

2 Whales are said to be the most intelligent animals in the oceans

3 Some whales are known to move into warm waters to give birth

2 Listen again and then answer the following questions.

1 What is the length and weight of the blue whale?

People keep hunting whales for

2 Why do whales like to feed in the cold oceans?

3 According to the listening passage, what are the good feeding grounds for whales?

4 What is the main reason for the decrease in whale populations?

5 What have conversation groups asked the International Whaling

Commission to do?

Note:

- Before listening, T lets students read the questions and has them pay

attention to main ideas

Cues:

 The length and weigtht

 Why to feed in the cold ocean

 What- good feeding grounds

 What main reason – decrease whale population

 What – groups asked to do

 What happen – didn’t take any measures to protect

- T ask the students to make short answers or present main ideas

 Ex: 30 metres in length / 30 metres long

 Ex: Heavy hunting

 Ex: To disappear forever

IV After – listening:

- T asks students to base on these guidelines to make a short talk about whales

30 metres long _ weigh 200 tons

Whales the largest animal _ the most intelligent animals

krills their favourite food

Heavy hunting presure Whale populations decrease quickly

Stop most whaling take measures to protect whales

Prevent whales from disappearing forever

E UNIT 12: MUSIC

I Warm-up